IIRC for that year most likely cause is the fuel filler neck/pipe, it rusts out and leaks gas which cause high emissions and cause the check engine light to come on...you'll have to fix it anyway to sell it for the best price (otherwise only a junkyard will take it for parts)

I used a promissory note to lend one of my kids a semester's tuition when they messed up their scholarship & so couldn't get it applied before the tuition deadline. I charged a market interest rate, then forgave the interest as a gift (amount well under the annual limit) after they fixed their mista...

It seems to matter most with those who have meager income/assets in retirement. Just went through this with a relative who died in their early 70s a few months ago. They had been laid-off at age 60, but rather than look for another job they decided to head back to school, spending ~$40,000 in the pr...

Kid is on a ROTC scholarship for tuition/fees, I pay the apartment rent/university gold-level ACA health plan. So I told the kid to use the $2,500/semester grant they get from their university (as a ROTC scholarship recipient) to pay for food, etc. That grant is separate from their monthly ROTC stip...

I also plan to keep well informed about "end of life" situations and choices - and hop/plan that my wife and/or other family members are well informed when it comes to my "situation". My brother and sister-in-law (especially my sister-in-law) live in the area where I grew up and were directly invol...

I’ve heard of families with annual income of > $200k and multiple kids in college at the same time getting some FA. That's us. We have two kids simultaneously in different high cost colleges, reported gross income over $300K in HCOL area. Our FA, grants covering roughly 14% of total cost, is need-b...

I’ve heard of families with annual income of > $200k and multiple kids in college at the same time getting some FA. That's us. We have two kids simultaneously in different high cost colleges, reported gross income over $300K in HCOL area. Our FA, grants covering roughly 14% of total cost, is need-b...

If you don't like dealing with not having the creature comforts while camping you probably wont like dealing with the water/waste tanks required to have those creature comforts while camping. People seem to think that will be the case, but it's a 5-10 minute procedure at the end of the weekend, and...

Well, my spouse and I are amongst the “truly uninformed” despite both of us having graduate degrees in business. CarMax is no different than any other dealership — you have to do your research before you walk in the door. Sometimes a vehicle is well-priced, sometimes it isn’t. We also are willing t...

Like most college threads here, when discussing scholarships the OP misses the military option (for U.S. citizens & legal residents) There are several ways to leverage the U.S. military to pay for undergrad: 1. Enlist & use GI Bill benefits afterwards, even for private schools (if they participate i...

I can re-configure my current two-story townhome for one level living...some olde neighbors have already remodeled the master bathroom with a walk-in shower & washer/dryer (current laundry room is on the lower level)

What about the $6,000 annual premium for the policy that you’ve been mentioning? Are there any guarantees that the premium won’t increase or that the benefits won’t be reduced, whether those things happen annually or irregularly? Or at least caps on premiums? That is certainly one of the major fear...

Insurance agent here - a few points: 1. These policies are not variable. Variable policies can lose value and require a securities license to be sold, and they do not have a 0% growth floor. 2. The illustrated rates returned are very high. Agents should not be illustrating 7% returns (my personal o...

Permit at 15, license at 16 so we didn't have to shuttle them around. In my state any new driver (whether 16 or 18) is penalized for 3 years on auto insurance as an "inexperienced driver" so the parent(s) don't save by delaying. Massachusetts? As a new driver at 39, I was paying more for insurance ...

There are tragic situations. However, there is a lot of marketing of “cognitive decline,” and as we age we’ll find relatives ( some disinterested but others with an agenda), medical professsionals, and financial advisors or would-be advisors seeking to pry control of assets away from the earners of...

Helped a relative in their 70s sign up for Part B (yeah, they paid a significant penalty for delaying signup) & Plan G + a drug plan spring of 2018. Even then a year of Plan G premiums plus the deductible was cheaper than a year of Plan F premiums. I would not get Plan N unless you live in a state t...

I believe that it's an exceedingly rare event for there to be a successful judgment over $100k against a non-commercial entity where there was no criminal activity, drugs, or alcohol involved. But if you worry about it, just buy an umbrella policy, as others have noted. I just served a full week as...

With LTC you buy and no matter what you do, you can have your rates raised to the point of not being affordable when you need it most. Many states have now imposed limits on how much insurers can increase LTC insurance premiums. But there seem to me to be a fairly narrow window with regard to your ...

Sometimes medicine is a job...at least at first. Years ago I had a relative with a disabled spouse & several kids whose job wasn't sufficient to support them, but it kept him outdoors & in excellent physical shape, so even though he was in his mid-30s the military was willing to send him through med...

I'm going to propose a different option that while not Boglehead-like is worth considering: lease a new low end car. If you look at stripped down cars Civics, Hyundai, etc, you can often get a brand new car with all the latest safety features and without any headaches of maintenance for less than $...

We required our kids to take piano for several years & required them to participate in organized sports of their choice in high school. One D3 coach wanted our youngest for a sport he didn't start playing until his junior year...but he didn't get in...only ~250 spots that year. Still, with their ath...

Sunroofs reduce headroom and eventually leak...never again for me. Leather is just as uncomfortably hot as vinyl once exposed to direct sun in our climate, though if you must aftermarket is often cheaper & higher quality. If you've got kids you should be using custom-fit seat covers (Costco has nice...

Personally I will never buy Ltc insurance. Future models will allow more people to be cared for in the home with wearables However some disease like dementia will still need long term care. Thank you. Always good to hear from someone who has been involved in claim decisions. Insurance companies are...

Yes, you can probably afford to retire now. Probably? $6MM and only probably? Assuming zero growth/downturn he can withdraw $16,666 a month or $200K a year for the next 30 years. That's if it stays flat. At even nominal growth OP can do better than that. It baffles me when someone with $6MM in asse...

Others may differ with me on this but the best gas stoves are the ones with pilot lights and the only reason for an electric connection is for the clock. I don't think they've made any new ones like that for maybe 30 - 40 years. The more electronics you have on a gas stove the higher the chance the...

Our friend told that when he bought his own house, he found faults in the house that he told his inspector about the inspector refused to put those on his report. Apparently the inspector told him that "If I put down everything I find wrong in these houses, none of them would ever sell". It was an ...

Is MBA worth it for someone with the following attributes? - Current age 23 - Current comp package $215/yr - Cost of MBA - $200K (Tuition) + $450K (Lost income) = $650K I think it makes sense to do from top 10 college otherwise don't go for it. Thoughts? Can you get your employer to pay for an even...

We just started looking at LTC insurance. The hard part is trying to figure out how much you need without becoming "insurance poor". The rates (2 different companies) have range from about $300 a month for both of us with a 3% inflation ryder, comes out to be about $100 a day coverage for 3 years. ...

Using leasehackr I just leased a truck to replace a 20+ year old sedan with ~250,000 city miles. Through a non-captive lender because they set crazy high residuals (for trucks) versus the captive. Flip side is the non-captives like to charge you for every tiny nick & ding, so I also added "wear & te...

Illiquid investments...before discovering this forum I "got sold" several including non-traded REITs, BDCs. Initially, higher yields than traded investments, but the yields drop over time...which lowers the value, but you're stuck until a liquidity event or you sell & take a huge haircut (1/3 or mor...

I'm a young high earner in tech but there's zero guarantee this income continues over the course of my entire career. Reaching FIRE reduces my risk exposure to the wild swings of the tech industry. I'm making north of $300k today but is that sustainable? Compensation in my field has skyrocketed ove...

I have thoroughly enjoyed living in my townhouse for 20+ years because for one monthly fee (~1% of its value annually) all outside maintenance is covered. Brick veneer, but the trim/doors/window frames still must be painted every few years, roof repairs are covered. Some extraordinary items are not....

There is a new dynamic out there that wasn't there before. That is horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracking. This has opened up new oil from places where oil was previously thought to be unrecoverable. I have read that the frackers can make money on $40/barrel oil. What happens is that when oil p...

I've had to care for a parent with dementia...they were diagnosed around age 50, dead early 60s. They spent nearly a decade in bed, requiring total care. The biggest reason they lasted so long was that I treated every infection they developed...before the last one killed them. So I've made it clear ...

I have a relative who has kept their electric water heater going for decades by draining the tank, removing the drain valve, and using a wet-dry vac to suck out the remaining sediment on the bottom once/year.